Germany has appointed an eight-person commission to re-appraise the attack on Israeli athletes and team members at the 1972 Munich Olympics to answer unresolved questions, said German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in a statement on Friday.
“For too many years, there was a lack of understanding or reappraisal of the events, transparency about them or acceptance of responsibility for them,” she said.
“For too many years, there was a lack of understanding or reappraisal of the events, transparency about them or acceptance of responsibility for them.”
German Foreign Minister Nancy Faeser
The project is part of a larger government approach to seek reconciliation with the families affected, including a compensation offer of 28 million euros ($30.67 million).
What happened in the Munich Massacre?
Palestinians from the Black September militant group took members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage on Sept. 5, 1972.
Eleven Israelis, a German policeman and five of the Palestinian gunmen died after a stand-off at the Olympic village and the nearby Fuerstenfeldbruck airfield.
MOURNERS, INCLUDING female family members, attend Kaddish recitation at a 2012 memorial ceremony in Munich for the 1972 murdered Israeli Olympic athletes. (credit: MICHAEL DALDER/REUTERS)The Games continued in 1972 after the attacks and the IOC took almost half a century to comply with families’ requests for an official act of remembrance at an Olympic event.
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